Latency of Brainstem Response in Children

Brainstem electric responses were obtained on a group of 70 normal hearing children, aged 5-11 years, matched by age and sex. The recordings were examined for differences in latencies between the sexes at each age. The results showed that males have a longer latency than females, but when broken down into age groups, the latency of children aged 5-7 years was the same, and the latency of children aged 8-11 years differed. The results for latency of wave V of the whole group showed the greatest difference. The reason why such a sex difference should occur in middle childhood is discussed, but no physical cause found.